


You and Me, It's Like Alchemy

by pearlcaddy



Series: The Wizarding World of Food Service [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: A Truly Unreasonable Amount of Harry Potter Pick-Up Lines, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Food Service, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter, Alternate Universe - Wizarding World Theme Park, Banter is My Love Language so It's Jukebox's Too, F/M, Fluff, Living!Phantoms AU, Minor Alex Mercer/Willie, Pining, Suggestive Themes, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27582007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearlcaddy/pseuds/pearlcaddy
Summary: Luke didn’t expect to fall for a girl because she pretends to not know what the internet is. But then, his idea of what cute is has gotten a little distorted since he started working at the Wizarding World theme park.Luke’s POV on the Living!Phantoms Wizarding World Theme Park Workers AU”should i keep pouring butterbeer around her and see if she compliments me again?”
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Series: The Wizarding World of Food Service [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2013403
Comments: 272
Kudos: 681





	You and Me, It's Like Alchemy

**Author's Note:**

> Title from “Catalyst for Love” by Ministry of Magic
> 
> Luke’s POV of [Wizard Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27500788)—if you haven't read that, you should start there.  
> Shoutout to the internet and society in general for coming up with some truly appalling Potter pick-up lines. You should be ashamed/proud of yourselves.
> 
> [iOS text skin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6434845/chapters/14729722) courtesy of CodenameCarrot and La_Temperanza

#### Shift Assignment:  
6.30-14.06 | BUTTERBEER 1

As someone who doesn’t really believe in the concept of sleep, Luke isn’t normally bothered by opening shifts. But carts opening shifts aren’t supposed to start until seven, and he’s been called in half an hour early for five days straight to train people who don’t seem terribly interested in learning.

On the one hand, he gets it. Most people are just trying to earn a living and they don’t actually care that much about this job specifically. But on the other hand, he really doesn’t get it. He fundamentally doesn’t understand apathy—if you’re gonna be here, why not just give a shit and try?

So when he first arrives at the wardrobe department and hears a sleepy voice from the women’s changing room singing a grumpy bastardization of _Oklahoma!_ , he can’t help but grin because his mood’s really been captured.

_Oh, what a horrible mornin'  
Oh, what a horrible day  
I've got a terrible feeling  
Nothing is going my way_

Luke collects his uniform from the costume racks and checks it out at the front desk, and by the time he’s reached the men’s changing room, the voice seems to have gotten a bit more awake and a bit less angry. Or at least, a bit more determined to try for optimism. The absence of rage and exhaustion suits the voice, as it jauntily sings “Build Me Up Buttercup” with the kind of volume and enthusiasm that suggests a person with earbuds in who doesn’t realize how loud they’re being.

But he doesn’t mind, because the voice is _really good_.

Killer, in fact.

He’s never heard that voice before—he would definitely remember if he had.

So he gets dressed in a hurry, because he wants to know who that voice belongs to, and he’s glad he did because as he starts to leave the changing room, the voice goes quiet. He steps into the atrium of wardrobe just in time to see a girl he’s never met walk out of the women’s changing room. She’s removing her earbuds, which continue to blare out The Foundations for a moment before she pauses her phone and tucks it into her apron pocket.

Once he’s identified the source of the voice, he notices two things. 1) She’s cute. Really, really cute. 2) She’s in a carts uniform.

Suddenly, he doesn’t really mind being called in at 6:30 am.

* * *

He wishes he could have come up with a better first line than “First opening shift?” but Julie seems to take a while to activate in the morning, so he doesn’t think she’s really judging him.

As their shift starts properly, he clocks how nervous and small she seems, practically hugging herself as she eyes up the Three Brooms like it’s the site of a great personal failing. On the one hand, he really hopes she gets more confident as time goes on, but on the other hand, he appreciates that she actually seems to care whether or not she does the job well. She’s curious and (especially as her coffee kicks in) witty, genuinely wanting to understand how all the different roles work.

(He assumes she’s a Ravenclaw. He hopes they can become good enough friends so he can ask her about her Sorting Hat Chats houses.)

So he knows she’s musical, cute, funny, and invested, and also that (based on the approving grin she gives him) she dislikes She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, which are all traits that put her on the fast track to becoming a work crush.

But he really knows he’s in trouble when a guest comes up to get a cold Butterbeer and, giving them a conspiratorial smile, asks, “So how much do you have to know about all this stuff to get hired here?” He seems smug about his question, so he’s One of Those Guests: the ones who are weirdly proud of their ability to know that they’re at a theme park and that this is all a carefully constructed illusion (which… congrats?)

These are the guests that Luke likes to fuck with, so he stares blankly and asks, “What stuff?”

“You know, about Harry Potter?”

“I’ve never met the Boy Who Lived. Have you?” he asks Julie.

She doesn’t skip a beat as she passes the guest his Butterbeer. “I’ve never even left Hogsmeade, and I think he lives down in England?”

The guest rolls his eyes, as if trying to establish that he’s in on the joke but impatient with it. “Haha. Do you have to do some sort of test? With, like, Pottermore questions?”

Julie raises an eyebrow and, in a voice that sounds genuinely confused rather than the playacting voice she was using before, asks, “What’s Pottermore?”

The man stares at her, and Luke almost does as well, because she seemed to know her stuff earlier. “The website? With all the extra Harry Potter information?” the man explains, incredulous.

She cocks her head, looking even more confused. “What’s a website?”

Luke just barely keeps a laugh from escaping his lips. The man rolls his eyes. “Very cute.”

He stalks away, and Luke turns to her with what he’s sure is a massive grin. Her confused expression melts into a playful smirk. “You’re gonna do well here,” he tells her, then holds out his elbow. She hesitates, confused. “Oh, food service high-five. Bump elbows so you don’t have to wash your hands again.”

She bumps her elbow to his. “Can we do that all shift?”

“Food service high-fives?”

“And pureblood ignorance.”

“I dunno that purebloods work food service.”

“There are twenty-eight pureblood families. Some of them must have jobs that aren’t just ‘being rich.’”

His smile right now is probably embarrassing. “Sacred Twenty-Eight reference? Sounds like someone reads Pottermore.”

“Please. A real wizard would know the website’s called the Wizarding World now.” She shoots him a smug grin and just like that he’s got a work crush.  


Butterbeer Curve Group Chat:  
  
Luke:  
new girl starting today  
  
Reggie:   
new girls start every day  
  
Alex:   
Hospitality churn—it’s a thing  
  
Luke:  
she's really cool, but hella nervous  
so if you work with a julie, be nice to her  
  
Reggie:   
we’re nice to everyone  
  
Luke:  
but extra nice  
  
Alex:   
Wait a minute  
Is this girl, like, wearing a guitar as a hat  
  
Reggie:   
does she have music notes tattooed on her face  
  
Luke:  
what??  
  
Alex:   
You only notice people if they do something overtly musical in your direct line of sight/hearing   
  
Luke:  
i guess she was singing in wardrobe this morning?  
  
Reggie:   
whoomp there it is  
  
Luke:  
i notice people!  
  
Alex:   
You notice people, but you don’t notice *people*  
(picture me waggling my eyebrows)  
  
Luke:  
it’s not like that! she’s just cool  
and she pretended to not know what the internet is   
for themeing purposes   
  
Reggie:   
did u swoon  
u probably swooned  
is she cute?  
  
Luke:  
what does cute even mean  
who defines cute  
who decides who is cute  
  
Alex:   
So… yes   
  
Luke:  
yeah, she’s super cute  
  
Reggie:   
how long did u wait before guessing her hogwarts house  
  
Luke:  
what’s a normal length of time to wait?  
  
Alex:   
Most people actually go their entire lives without guessing other people’s houses  
  
Luke:  
sounds fake but okay  
  
Alex:   
For you, I would advise waiting at least a week  
  
Luke:  
yeah, i waited a week  
  
Reggie:   
u said today was her first day  
  
Luke:  
oh no, my ten is over, have to go  
  


#### 12.30-20.06 | THREE BROOMS

The first couple of shifts Luke works with Julie just confirm that he has a definite work crush on this girl, especially when he gets to hear her voice again and learns that she’s just as incapable of working Butterbeer 2 without singing and dancing as he is. But it’s after her first expo shift that he decides that he really wants to test the “work” part of that “work crush.”

He and the guys are hanging out in the wardrobe atrium after their shift when she walks past, heading toward the laundry chute with her uniform and he realizes…

… God, maybe this is embarrassing, but he _really liked_ working with her on expo. He likes people who are curious and passionate about the things they do, and she was so stressed about doing expo because she cared about getting it right, and then she nailed it because she’s awesome. It’s a lot of things he likes in a person happening at once and… fuck it, why is he trying to make excuses? He has a work crush on this girl, and he kinda wants to see what she’s like outside of work. She could be a nightmare. He should know that ASAP before he gets more invested.

He glances over at Alex and Reggie, who are pulling on their backpacks, ready to head home.

“Wanna go back in the park?” he asks.

He thinks he’s being casual, but Alex immediately looks past him in Julie’s direction. “Do you _want_ us to come? Or should we be ‘busy?’”

“It’s not like that.” Reggie and Alex both raise their eyebrows, unconvinced. “Okay, maybe,” Luke concedes. “I wanna see. But, also, she mentioned she just moved here, seems kinda lonely. She could probably use friends. So let’s all be friends.”

“As long as we’re not third-wheeling.”

“I got the code today,” Reggie offers with a smile. A true friend and master wingman.

Luke spins around as Julie walks by. “Julie!”

She stops short, looking at them like she’s never seen them before and he grins, cause he knows the feeling of seeing people out of uniform for the first time and genuinely not recognizing them. The first time he saw their shift lead Caleb without his hat, Luke almost complained to him about what a dick Caleb was. Thank god for Reggie who literally tackled him to the floor mid-sentence when he realized what was happening.

Luke wishes for a second that he’d checked in the mirror before leaving the changing room. Hopefully he doesn’t look like too much of a mess. He points to his head. “See? Hair.”

She smiles, running her eyes over his face in a way that makes his cheeks feel warm. Okay, so not too much of a mess. “You wear it well.”

He lets himself take in her appearance: crop top, funky black and white pants, and a stunning head of curls, and… damn. He knew she was cute, but now he has context for her cuteness and it’s going to be even more distracting on shift. “So do you.”

* * *

Their whole night in the park, he knows he’s slipping deeper. He feels like a high schooler all over again. Every time they get in line for a ride, he jostles himself into place so he’ll be sitting next to her (not that the guys are fighting him—they know what’s up), and she keeps giving him these shy smiles that make his heart go all tingly.

But the final nail in the coffin of “this is just a work crush” is afterwards, when they’re heading through CityWalk back to their cars and they reach the cinema plaza. “Don't Kill My Vibe” is playing through the loudspeakers, and she starts spinning around and singing along in the middle of the plaza. The bright neon lights from the screens dance over her face and, for a moment, she’s actually glowing.

Alex gently tucks a finger under Luke’s chin and pops his mouth closed.

“It’s not like that?” Reggie asks quietly.

Julie sings triumphantly into her fist like it’s a mic, closing her eyes as she hits the high note.

“Okay,” Luke admits. “It’s like that.”  


Butterbeer Curve Group Chat:  
  
Alex:   
Okay, so having gotten to know Julie, she’s great and I support this  
  
Reggie:   
team juke  
  
Alex:   
But  
Do you need us to give you a tutorial on how to walk and talk to your crush at the same time?  
  
Luke:  
we were bonding!  
  
Alex:   
Yeah, no, we got that  
  
Reggie:   
but if we’re gonna keep wingmaning u in the park  
actually doing things in the park would be nice  
  
Alex:   
^  
  
Luke:  
do you think she likes us?  
  
Reggie:   
when u say “us,” do u mean “u”  
and when u say “likes,” do you u mean “likes ;)”  
  
Alex:   
She definitely likes us as a unit, we’re very charming  
I don’t know how she feels about you because I barely know her, but she was also very bad at walking while talking to you  
  
Reggie:   
also she kept staring at ur arms  
  
Alex:   
To be fair, we all do that  
  
Reggie:   
but she was doing it A LOT  
  
Alex:   
… see above  
  


#### 10.30-18.06 | BUTTERBEER 2

Luke hasn’t worked with Julie in a few days and he’s honestly starting to wonder if the scheduling office _knows_ how much he wants to spend time with her and is messing with him. It’s rude. All he asks of this job is a living wage and shifts with the girl he has a crush on. Is that so much to ask for?

So, sure. He _knows_ he’s not supposed to look at the spreadsheet on the computer with today’s shift assignments, but he’s the only one in the carts office and he’s just going to quickly scroll and see if Julie’s name is on the schedule, and no one will ever know—

“What are you doing?”

Lessa stands in the doorway with fiercely folded arms.

He leaps away from the computer like it’s on fire. “… I was just, uh, wondering who was working today.”

She narrows her eyes and he feels vividly like he’s back in high school and he’s being dragged to the principal’s office.

“Why?”

“Just curious.” He notices too late that his hand is rubbing the back of his head, which Alex has told him is a dead giveaway that he’s nervous and/or bullshitting.

“Are you avoiding someone or is there someone you want to work with?”

If it were Mrs. Harrison, he would just come clean. If she knows two people mutually enjoy working together, she tends to let them. But he can’t get as clear of a read on Lessa. She might do the same thing, or she might do nothing, or she might purposefully put him on a different assignment from Julie to “keep him focused.” (That’s 100% what Caleb would do.)

He shrugs, trying for casual. “Nah, I was just being a nuisance.”

Lessa doesn’t seem to buy that, which is rude because Luke feels he’s really established his brand as a nuisance, and he has genuine credibility here.

Mrs. Harrison chooses now to slip into the office to grab an extra set of quill pens. Lessa immediately turns to her. “Do you know why Luke was looking at my shift log?”

As soon as Mrs. Harrison looks at him, he knows that she knows. This woman has been friends with his parents for decades, and has known him practically his whole life. She always clocked his crushes even before his parents did, and when he was in seventh grade, she was the one who informed him very sternly that teasing wasn’t a valid form of flirting. Of course she knows.

“Luke’s got a crush,” she grins.

“I do not!” He cringes internally at how shrill and indignant he sounds. People who don’t have crushes sound casual, not panicked and horrified.

Mrs. Harrison rounds her shoulders a bit, swings her arms around, and imitates his voice. “‘She would probably kill on expo.’”

Okay, well that’s just…

… accurate.

“I was right. She did.” He’ll deny his crush all he wants, but he won’t deny Julie’s excellence.

Lessa raises an eyebrow, and Mrs. Harrison answers the unasked question. “New Julie.”

“OH.” Lessa appraises him for a second, then nods. “Yeah, I can see it.”

What does that mean??? Like, she thinks they would look good together? Or they seem like they match personality-wise? Or he looks like he’s into her (whatever the hell that would mean)? Is it good? Bad? Neutral???

Lessa does not clarify.

“I feel like this is unprofessional,” he tries.

“You were the one looking at my shift log,” she points out.

“Okay, fine, I’ll never do it again! Just tell me where I am today.”

“Register at Butterbeer 2, street side.”

He thinks they’re letting him go free, but before he reaches the office door, Mrs. Harrison calls out, “She’s on shift today. But we’re not telling you whether she’s at carts or Three Brooms.”

He tries to tell himself that he’s going to be casual about this, and he’s not going to react no matter when she comes in or what shift she’s dressed for. But thirty minutes later, she walks in in a carts uniform, and he figures, fuck it. Lessa already knows. The worst she can do is _not_ assign Julie to work with him. “Tell Lessa to put you on Butterbeer 2!” he calls.

She flashes a grin at him, and that grin gives him some hope.  


Butterbeer Curve Group Chat:  
  
Luke:  
think the leads might be shipping me and julie  
  
Alex:   
Oh, they definitely are. Harrison was laughing about you in servery today  
  
Luke:  
… that seems unprofessional  
  
Alex:   
To be fair, Reggie and I started it  
  
Luke:  
DUDES  
  
Reggie:   
ok but in our defense  
did u notice that we started at the same time as julie  
like, we were maybe twenty seconds ahead of her walking in  
and u did not notice us at all  
  
Alex:   
Reggie was waving at you A LOT  
  
Luke:  
huh  
yeah, gonna be real  
i didn’t see you guys  
  
Alex:   
You know you could just ask for her number and trade shift info  
Like, that is a super normal thing to do  
And then you won’t have to look like you got electrocuted every time you see her walk into the park  
  
Luke:  
i’m trying to figure out a casual way to ask  
  
Reggie:   
have u considered  
“can i have ur number?”  
  
Luke:  
you can’t just ask for someone’s number! there are *connotations*  
  
Alex:   
Yes, the connotations are “21st century friendship”  
  
Luke:  
really? so you have willie’s number?  
  
Alex:   
...  
I came here to have a good time and I’m honestly feeling so attacked right now  
  
Luke:  
i don’t want to make her feel uncomfortable or anything  
we work together  
and i really want to be friends no matter what  
so it needs to be super casual  
  
Reggie:   
“can i have ur number?”  
  
Alex:   
^ cannot stress this enough  
  
Reggie:   
or if u want to keep it themed  
“when i look in the mirror of erised, i see u giving me ur number”  
  
Luke:  
that’s LESS casual  
i already think i screwed up  
might have told her earlier that she's the cutest witch in hogsmeade  
  
Alex:   
!! How did she react?  
  
Luke:  
dunno, i ran away  
  
Reggie:   
...  
  
Alex:   
What is wrong with you?  
  
Luke:  
i was trying to be casual!  
  
Alex:   
NO.  
  


#### 11.30-19.06 | BUTTERBEER 1

#### 

Luke doesn’t think of himself as a jealous person because jealousy is toxic and petty and he’s not about that.

And then he walks up to Butterbeer 1 with his cash drawer just as Julie laughs at something Nick says to her. Nick’s grinning at her in a shy way that’s horribly familiar and maybe Luke is a little too assertive when he steps between them to rest his cash drawer on the counter.

“Can I pop my till in?” he asks Nick.

Nick nods and steps back from the register, and Luke is all too conscious of the noises and delay as he slots his till into the second register drawer and logs into the computer.

He finally forces himself to look at Nick. “Do you want to keep doing register, or do you want me to?”

Nick gives him a look and, again, Luke hates how familiar it is. It’s the “please let me keep working register next to the cute girl” look that Luke has definitely been making anytime someone else shows up with a till when he’s working with Julie.

“I’m good to keep doing register, unless you want to,” Nick shrugs, faking casual.

Oh good. They’re playing this game.

“Fine by me.”

“Cool.” There’s a silence, then Nick nods to the register. “Can I get back in there?”

“Oh, yeah. Course.”

Luke skips back. He glances over at Julie, who quirks an eyebrow at him. “Are you good to do line control?” she asks.

He can’t help but grin at how their roles are starting to shift. Not only does she know that there are positions she’s good at, but she also knows that she’s better at some of them than he is. But he’s still got his pride.

“Course. You doubting me?”

She looks unconvinced. “I’ve never seen you on line control.”

He sticks his tongue out at her and grabs a set of demo cups. “I’m great with guests.”

On the upside, when things are busy, line control actually gets to interact with the person on pouring more than the person on register does, because register is focused on guest interactions, whereas Luke is constantly popping back and forth between the guests and Julie to give her drink orders. So he may actually be in a better position than Nick.

But the first time he skips back to her to say, “1 frozen in a souvenir stein,” Nick chuckles.

“Frankenstein!” he and Julie yell at the same time.

“… what?” How do they already have inside jokes? He doesn’t have any inside jokes with Julie. Quick, someone do something that he can turn into an inside joke.

Julie explains. “We’re trying to develop a Butterbeer shorthand. So, frozen in a stein is Frankenstein.”

Nick grins at her. “Julie’s idea.”

She bites her lip and shrugs at Luke. “It’s not clever. Just… ‘frozen stein’ started to sound like Frankenstein after we said it a lot.”

“What’re the rest of the shorthands?” Luke asks.

“I really only have Frankenstein, so if you’ve got ideas, chime in.”

And so, over the course of the shift, they develop their shorthands. A frozen Butterbeer in a regular cup becomes the Jack Frost, the cold in a stein goes on a journey from the Coldplay to Clocks, and when no one comes up with anything better for a regular cold cup, Nick reluctantly suggests the Elsa because the cold (Butterbeer) never bothered him anyways.

All of which is to say that by the end of Nick and Julie’s shift, the three of them are making themselves laugh way more than is warranted when Luke gives Julie an order for “A Frankenstein, 2 Clocks, 3 Jacks, and an Elsa.” Luke is prepared to admit that maybe he was too hard on Nick… especially after Nick rings out his till and heads off to the cash center. Luke slots in at the register next to Julie and tries to ignore how right this feels—the two of them working side-by-side.

He feels a bit less generous towards Nick when the guy swings by on his way back to the carts office and taps Julie on the shoulder. “Ready to clock out?” he asks.

Julie and Nick wave to Luke, and he tries very hard not to watch them leave together.

He’s not jealous, he’s not jealous, he’s not jealous…

* * *

When he gets back to wardrobe an hour later, Alex, Reggie, and Julie are all hanging out in the lounge, apparently waiting for him. Julie looks up and beams when she sees him and…

Okay, he _was_ jealous. And he’s definitely not anymore.

“Go get changed!” she exclaims. “We’re going into the park. I wanna ride Jurassic.”

He leans on the back of the couch she's sitting on and grins down at her. “You just worked an eight-hour, and you want to go all the way down to the Lower Lot?”

“Yeah, I think I can handle riding a bunch of escalators. Can you? Or do you need me to buy you a Jack Frost first?” She grins at him.

He’s conscious of Alex and Reggie watching them, but she’s practically glowing and apparently they have an inside joke, so maybe he doesn’t care. “If you’re trying to bribe me, at least offer me a Frankenstein. Treat me like I’m fancy.”

“But you’re not fancy. You don’t even seem to own any shirts with sleeves.”

Look, he’s not blushing. You’re blushing.

He boops her nose gently. “Insulting my shirts? Now you definitely owe me a Frankenstein,” he murmurs, wincing internally when he realizes his voice has gone a bit too soft and playful. Apparently he’s using Butterbeer in souvenir cups to flirt now. Apparently this is who this place has turned him into.

But she’s beaming up at him and, again, he can’t seem to care whether he’s acting ridiculous. “You’ll get a Jack and you’ll like it. Now go get changed!”

She turns back to his friends and he doesn’t really remember to worry about Nick again.  


Frankenstein Curve Group Chat:  
  
Reggie:   
next time ur on shift together, ask julie if she’s interested in casting spells together  
  
Luke:  
… why?  
  
Reggie:   
cause if she says yes  
u can tell her ur wand is at the ready  
  
Alex:   
It is 6:30 am, Reginald, why would you wake me up with this monstrosity  
  


#### 15.00-22.36 | THREE BROOMS

The first time they all sing together is on a closing shift. Once the doors of the Three Brooms are shut and locked, Mrs. Harrison immediately turns off the background music with a “ _Quite_ enough of that!" and there’s an audible sigh of relief from the staff. As much as Luke loves the Harry Potter soundtrack, the Three Brooms rotates endlessly between what seems like only three pieces of music and he never wants to hear “Leaving Hogwarts” again in his life. Mrs. Harrison nods to him. “Luke, you’re up.”

He grabs his Bluetooth speakers from his bag and syncs them to his phone. He hits play on “Born for This” by The Score and sets to work wiping down the drinks windows.

When Julie appears with the broom to sweep in front of the registers, she nods her head in time to the music and starts singing along with the second verse.

_I’ve struggled for years and  
Through all of the tears  
I've faced the doubts I hide_

Alex and Reggie, who are cleaning the register area, freeze. They’ve heard her singing with the Frog Choir and that one time on CityWalk, but they’ve never heard her _really_ sing full volume in a space that lets her voice ring out.

Their eyes shoot to Luke immediately, shocked. He nods and grins. 

_I never gave into my fears deep within  
'Cause I heard my voice inside_

Reggie leans over the register he’s wiping and adds his voice as the backing vocals for the next two lines. Julie shoots him a smile as they sing together.

_I know I was born for this  
I know I was born for this_

Julie sings the next two lines into the handle of her broom, like it’s a mic, and there’s an intensity on her face that makes Luke think there’s something personal to these lyrics for her.

_I will never lose my voice  
If I cut out all the noise_

He bounces over to her and this time, he provides the backup vocals, leaning into the broom like they’re sharing a mic. She grins at him from across the broom handle.

_I know, I was born for this  
I know, I was born for this_

Alex pops over the register counter, joining Julie at the broom for the pre-chorus.

_I believe, I believe  
We can write our story  
I believe, I believe  
We can be an army_

Reggie rushes over, and all four of them belt out the chorus together, dancing around the broom like they’re sharing a mic, and Luke can’t not notice that they’re basically standing in a band circle.

_We are the warriors, who learned to love the pain  
We come from different places but have the same name  
'Cause we were, 'cause we were,  
'Cause we were, 'cause we were born for this  
We were born for this_

Julie jumps her voice up the octave and harmonizes with them. Their voices blend together in a beautiful cacophony.

_We are the broken ones, who chose to spark a flame  
Watch as our fire rages, our hearts are never tame  
'Cause we were, 'cause we were,  
'Cause we were, 'cause we were born for this—_

Luke’s phone cuts off abruptly. They turn to see Mrs. Harrison holding her finger pointedly on the pause button.

“Born to clean the Three Brooms, yes. Come on. Some of us want to close and get home this century.”

The four of them quickly split up, shooting apologetic looks to everyone else on staff.

But it plants the seed of an idea deep within Luke, in the part of him that’s been spinning his wheels ever since Bobby left Sunset Curve, the part of him that’s been trying to figure out what their band is now. It’s not a full-blown idea—more like an itch he wants to scratch so he can understand what’s under it—but it’s the start of something.  


Julie Molina Stan Squad Group Chat:  
  
Alex:   
I’m really disappointed I wasn’t there when Luke first heard Julie’s voice, because I feel like he probably blacked out?  
  
Reggie:   
we should definitely jam with her again  
  
Alex:   
Yeah, that was pretty awesome  
  
Luke:  
she’s incredible, right???  
i've asked her to jam with us a couple times but she kinda ducks it every time  
  
Reggie:   
did u ask her calmly  
or were u all luke about it  
  
Luke:  
what does that mean???  
  
Alex:   
“You’ve got a voice like a literal angel/human wrecking ball, you’re incredible, will you marry me?”  
  
Luke:  
i didn’t say that last thing  
i was super chill  
i think  
  
Reggie:   
i wasn’t there but i disagree  
  


#### 12.00-19.36 | THREE BROOMS

Luke would never have thought that he’d love a bussing shift, but working in the supply closet with Julie is definitely making the list of his favorite shifts.

It’s also—and he’s very conscious of this when the room goes quiet and no one comes barging in looking for supplies—the first time they’ve ever actually been alone together. 

Up until now, he's had a crush. He wants to spend time with her, have her smile at him, just generally operate in her orbit, but he hasn’t actually thought concretely about what dating her would be like.

Sitting here in this closet, their knees touching in the cramped space, he starts to think.

It definitely doesn’t help that she keeps biting her lip and drawing his attention to it.

But she also keeps humming softly to the soundtrack of the Three Brooms, which bleeds gently through the door, and he’s just so in awe of her voice.

“Why didn’t you audition for the Frog Choir?”

She tenses, and he wants to take back the question because he didn’t think it would be a big deal. “I did. They very politely and firmly said that if I was looking for a job, food service was hiring.”

He’ll fight them all.

_Be chill, Luke, chill._

“That sucks,” he says, super chill. She smiles tensely, and he realizes that this is a wound that goes deeper than he expected. “You know it doesn’t matter, right? It’s one audition.”

“Yeah.” But it’s the kind of yeah that’s spelled n-o.

He ducks his head, trying to grab her gaze. “You’re really talented. You’re gonna be huge someday.”

She tries to deflect. “You have a habit of boldly claiming I’m going to be good at things.”

“And I’m right. Good at expo, good on Butterbeer, voice like a wrecking ball.” … okay, he’s not being chill, but how is he supposed to be chill about her amazing talent?? “You’re gonna be a big deal. Luke Patterson guarantee.” He grins at her, and his heart wriggles a bit when she smiles back. He doubts he’s actually helped any of her self-confidence issues, but it’s still really good to see her happy.

There’s a long silence as they sit there staring at each other and, as it gets longer, his gaze falls to her lips without his permission and—

—the closet door opens loudly as Flynn flies in. She watches them for a moment, shrewd, and Luke tries to put on his most innocent facial expression. Blinking? Lots of blinking looks innocent, right?

“I was gonna hide in here,” Flynn groans.

Luke wants to do the nice thing and offer to trade places, but he also really doesn’t want to leave, so he’s glad when Julie just smiles sympathetically at her friend. “Sorry, finders keepers. Not going out in that mess.”

Flynn sighs. “At least give me some fork bins for the war zone.”

As the door clicks shut behind her, Julie looks back at him and smiles softly. “You know, the Frog Choir thing was a bit ego-bruising but… I’m really glad I didn’t get the job. I like it here.”

His face feels like it almost splits in half from how quickly his smile grows. “Yeah, I’m really glad you didn’t get the job either.”

They get lost in smiling at each other again, only to get interrupted by another busser barging in to get cleaning solution.

Julie pulls her phone and a set of earbuds out of her apron pocket. “I don’t know enough about your taste in music. So, pull something up on Spotify. I want to judge you.”

He laughs, delighted. “That’s your idea of a fun activity?”

“That’s how I bond with musical people. I judge their taste.” She tucks an earbud in her ear and passes him the phone and the other earbud.

As he pulls up Augustines and hits play, he glances back at her face. She loves music as much as he does, she soothes his emotional turmoil with just her presence, she knows when he wants to talk and when he doesn’t, she’s a human wrecking ball of talent, she loves Potter… yeah, this has gone beyond a crush.  


Sunset Wizards Group Chat:  
  
Luke:  
got julie’s number :)  
  
Alex:   
Congrats!  
We’ve had her number for three weeks  
  
Luke:  
WHAT  
HOW  
  
Reggie:   
“can i have ur number”  
  
Alex:   
I really don’t understand what you’re not getting about this  
  
Reggie:   
ooh but now you can text her pick-up lines  
tell her “moaning myrtle was just called ‘myrtle’ until she met me”  
  
Luke:  
yeahhhh  
i'm not doing that  
  
Alex:   
Agreed  
It just raises too many logistical questions about ghost sex  
  
Luke:  
… that’s not my problem with it  
  
Reggie:   
guess it’s also not really a pick-up line  
more like a fun fact  
  
Luke:  
it's not a fact! that’s not what a fact is!  
  
Reggie:   
give us an example of a fact  
  
Luke:  
“alex is gone on willie”  
  
Reggie:   
fact  
  
Alex:   
Wait, how did this become about my love life?  
  
Luke:  
magic  
i’m a wizard, motherfuckers  
  


#### 12.00-19.36 | THREE BROOMS

What’s amazing is that Alex _knows_ how much Julie on expo is going to affect Luke before he does. Luke’s walking past the break area on his way to clock in, and his friend gives him a smug look that’s come to mean “something’s going on with Julie that’s going to torture Luke.” Which, okay, Luke and Julie exchange shift info now. He already knows she’s at the Three Brooms. But Alex’s face suggests that there’s something more to it than that.

Luke raises an eyebrow, and Alex just says, “She’s on expo.”

Luke’s instinct is to pretend he doesn’t know who “she” is, but Alex knows he knows and they’re a bit past the point of pretending Luke is subtle. But he’s not really sure why it matters that she’s on expo, other than letting him know that he wants to be in servery today. “Cool. She doing well?”

Alex laughs. “Oh, you are _not_ prepared for what’s going to happen to you when you go in there.”

When Luke reaches Mrs. Harrison at the end of the servery counter, he means to say hello to her, but then he catches sight of Julie and kinda just freezes.

She’s absolutely slaying. She’s fast and efficient, while also projecting that same air of calm that he tries to when he’s on expo. Picking up the tray she’s just finished, she yells “Tray for 6” in a firm voice.

A new guy is on drinks for Window 6, and he glances frantically back at her and mumbles nervously, “I’m so sorry, just getting rid of the backlog.”

“No worries,” she smiles. “One at a time. We’re in no rush.” The head movement she makes is… he recognizes that head movement. Alex and Reggie do it when they imitate Luke on expo. She’s channeling him. _She’s channeling him_. When New Guy clears a tray from his counter, she passes him the new one, smiling encouragingly. “You’re doing great.”

Mrs. Harrison leans over to Luke, and he realizes he’s probably been standing silently at her side gaping for a solid thirty seconds. “You were right. She is killing it.”

He finds his voice. “I recognize talent.”

“You recognize something alright.” She raises an eyebrow at him, like she’s looking right through him, then nudges his arm gently with her elbow. “Aww, you really like her. I thought it was just a little crush.”

“You’re my lead. You’re not supposed to know about my feelings.” He studies her face. “Wait, are you gonna bring this up at book club?” Translation: _are you going to tell my mother?_

“Oh, honey.” Translation: _I already have_. She points a finger at him. “You be careful with her. I’m not having another Carrie/Nick disaster.”

He bobs his head, then glances back at Julie just in time to see her getting dressings out of her expo fridge without having to look. He grins to himself. “Am I in servery?” he asks hopefully.

“You’re Caleb’s today, sorry.” He tries to pout, but she shakes her head. “Now run along to bussing. Caleb catches you looking at her like that, he’ll never put you two on shift together.”

Reluctantly, he starts to peel away from the servery, but she stops him with a question. “If I start putting you on the expo line together, is your head going to be focused on those trays?”

Clasping an offended hand to his chest, he backs away toward the supply closet. “Of course. I’m very professional.”

“You’re about to run into a guest.”

He stops short and raises an apologetic hand at the woman he almost bowled over, then looks back at Mrs. Harrison. “I’m professional in the servery.”

He doesn’t know if she’s convinced, but he does know that the next time he’s on expo, Julie is at his side.  


Sunset Wizards Group Chat:  
  
Luke:  
accidentally told julie that her being on expo is hot, what do i do  
  
Alex:   
“Accidentally?”  
  
Reggie:   
“being on expo is hot?”  
  
Alex:   
(Called it)   
  
Reggie:   
how did she react?  
  
Luke:  
dunno, i ran away  
  
Alex:   
STOP DOING THAT  
  
Reggie:   
go back and tell her ur interested in exploring her chamber of secrets with ur basilisk  
  
Alex:   
Do not say that to her  
at work.  
But honestly, I’m starting to think you’re going to need a script because the words coming out of your mouth are a disaster  
How about a classic: “The Sorting Hat knows my destiny and it says I belong in your house”  
  
Luke:  
but we’re in different houses  
  
Alex:   
That is… not the point of that pick-up line  
You do know that, right?  
  


#### 10.00-17.36 | BUTTERBEER 1

Okay… to be honest, Luke knows he works an eight-hour shift today, but once Julie calls him both cute and hot in a ten-second time frame, his brain kinda short-circuits and he has no idea what else happens. Presumably he pours some Butterbeers?  


Hot Butterbeermen Group Chat:  
  
Reggie:   
alex, get ready to be even more mad about not being on carts today  
julie basically said luke pouring a cold and a frozen at the same time was hot  
  
Alex:   
Oh my god. Are they *both* disasters? That’s so cute  
What did he do? Did he collapse?  
  
Reggie:   
he spilled bb everywhere because he forgot how to turn off the cold spigot  
  
Alex:   
He forgot how to… push a tap up?  
  
Reggie:   
if we weren’t slammed, lessa would’ve made him get changed  
he smells so strongly of butterscotch rn  
  
Luke:  
butterscotch AND shortbread  
get the butterbeer description right, bro  
  
Alex:   
How is THAT what you’re focusing on?  
  
Luke:  
i don’t think she meant it  
maybe she just said i was cute because i said she was cute  
so like, she doesn’t actually think i’m cute  
she just wants us to be even so things are fair  
  
Alex:   
That is  
not a thing people do  
  
Luke:  
should i keep pouring butterbeer around her and see if she compliments me again?  
  
Reggie:   
u could ask her out  
  
Luke:  
how?????  
  
Reggie:   
“do u wanna go out some time”  
  
Alex:   
May I suggest:  
“I’m not an Animagus, but I’m an animal in bed”  
  
Reggie:   
“i’ve been whomping my willow thinking about u”  
  
Alex:   
“Do you want to head to the Shrieking Shack?  
We could do some shrieking of our own”  
  
Luke:  
UNSUBSCRIBE  
  
Reggie:   
"have u been casting accio?  
  
Luke:  
STOP. I KNOW THAT ONE. DO NOT FINISH IT  
  


#### 10.00-16.36 | BUTTERBEER 1

Luke’s feeling optimistic heading into this carts shift because he and Julie are finishing at the same time, and Alex and Reggie are finishing later. He’s gonna ask her to go to the park with him afterwards, and they’ll actually be alone.

Okay, alone plus 40,000 guests.

But just the two of them. Not a date, but a trial date, to get a read on if she’s interested.

But then she gets put on the FJ cart. And maybe his plans for the day could be salvaged if the runners were checking on her or at least if he could, but he’s slammed at Butterbeer 1, and from his place on High Street, he can see the food runners restocking all the other carts. He doesn’t see anyone detouring down the alley towards the FJ cart.

Four and a half hours in, he’s desperate to see how she’s doing, and he knows that’s silly. She’s a grown adult, and she can take care of herself. As long as she has enough water and has managed to grab some shade, she’s not in any actual danger. She’s just having a miserable time.

Still, he’s super relieved when Reggie finally goes on his ten and, without Luke having to ask, says, “I’m gonna check on your girl.”

“Please don’t call her that. Can you bring her some ice cubes, just in case?”

“… that’s the runners’ job.”

“No, not for the cart. For her. Just, like, wrap a few in a paper towel.”

Reggie looks confused, but doesn’t question it.

* * *

It turns out that his plan for the day isn’t a total loss. Actually, hanging out with Julie at CItyWalk is better than the park. Going into the park feels like a fun adventure. CityWalk feels more casual and therefore more purposeful. She’s here to spend time with him, not to be at a theme park.

He finally has the courage to play her Sunset Curve because… okay, he likes her a lot, but if she doesn’t like his music then that doesn’t matter. He can’t date someone who doesn’t genuinely believe in what he’s trying to do with his life. So he’s a little nervous as he offers her an earbud to listen to their “Now or Never” demo.

A beam spreads over her face when the first verse begins and her eyes immediately rest on him as his recorded voice starts singing. He raises an eyebrow, nonverbally asking if she thinks he’s good, and she nods eagerly.

When they get to the second verse, she grins. “Love the pulsing guitar, it really raises the energy. Makes you feel like you’re in a beating heart.”

Which is exactly what he wanted to convey with it, and she got that without him having to explain it. 

As they go through the songs, she keeps doing that—not giving generic compliments like “that’s good” or “that’s cool,” but picking up on specific details, so he knows she means what she says. And she picks up on the details he loves, the bits he’s most proud of, which makes him feel like they’re on the same wavelength musically. And when she sheepishly asks if he can play “Now or Never” again, like she really, genuinely likes it, and then she starts singing along…

Oh fuck. He doesn’t just want to date her. He wants this girl in his band.

She grins over at him as she sings the bridge, instinctively harmonizing to it, and he can almost feel the nervous little crush butterflies in his stomach fly up to his heart and settle firmly in place. Like they’re formally mutating from “strong crush” to “very into this person.”

He really _really_ likes this girl.

And he feels like she maybe likes him too.

So a couple hours later, as they’re walking into the employee section of the parking garage, he feels confident enough to suggest, “You should tell me next time you’re performing. So I can hear you in your element, cheer you on. Buy you, like, a celebratory dinner after or something.”

But she avoids his gaze, looking startled and nervous, and mumbles, “Oh. Um, yeah, maybe.”

And that feels like a pretty clear rejection.  


Sad Butterbeerman Group Chat:  
  
Luke:  
so i asked julie out  
and she said no  
  
Reggie:   
oh shit  
sorry, dude. that really sucks  
  
Alex:   
What did you say exactly?  
  
Luke:  
“tell me next time you’re performing and i’ll come and buy you dinner after”  
  
Alex:   
That’s surprisingly direct for you, I’m impressed   
What did she say?  
  
Luke:  
“um, maybe” and then she basically ran away  
  
Alex:   
Is it rude if I say I’m trying to think of a way you might be misinterpreting this?  
  
Reggie:   
nah, cause that’s really weird  
she’s definitely into luke  
  
Luke:  
she looked super spooked. i’m really worried i made her uncomfortable  
  
Alex:   
Do you want me to ask Flynn?  
Because I feel like we’re missing something  
  
Luke:  
let’s really not do the high school telephone game  
it’s cool  
i asked, she said no, we’ve got our answer, moving on  
  
Reggie:   
idk dude, i don’t buy it  
maybe she doesn’t want u to see her perform or something  
ask her to do something different?  
  
Luke:  
i’m not asking her out again, i’m not gonna harass her at work  
it’s fine  
i mean, it sucks, but it’s fine, i’ll be fine  
  
Alex:   
You sure?  
  
Luke:  
yeah, it’s fine  
let’s please just drop it  
  


#### 15.00-22.36 | THREE BROOMS

To be honest, Luke is confused. He’s trying very hard not to be one of Those Guys that gets told a direct “no,” and then tries to compile evidence that, actually, she’s secretly super into him. He got told no. He accepts that.

But she keeps flirting with him, and sometimes he catches her staring at his lips, and one time she walks up to Butterbeer 1 while he’s pouring two Butterbeers and she shakes her head and mumbles, “Seriously, why is that so hot?” and that’s just… weird behavior for someone who rejected him. She doesn’t seem cruel or like she’d intentionally mislead him, so he’s starting to wonder if he maybe misinterpreted what happened in the parking garage. He’s not convinced enough to ask again—he’s not harassing her at work—but he’s definitely confused.

The Twitter incident just confuses him more. They’re on their lunch break and he doesn’t mean to have his arm on the back of her chair. He tweaked his shoulder lifting crates of steins, and he was trying to stretch it out when Julie sat next to him and leaned back against his arm. She looks comfortable and he is genuinely in pain, so he figures he’ll just leave it there unless she tells him to stop or seems at all uncomfortable.

The videos in the thread really surprise him because he didn’t realize they looked at each other like that. Sure, he’s kind of embarrassed that there’s all this photographic evidence of the cartoon heart eyes he does whenever she’s around, but… she kinda seems to be doing the same thing back.

He feels… hopeful.

He absolutely cannot look at her when he’s feeling this hopeful.

Scrolling back through the thread, he likes every single tweet because… look, even if she doesn’t like him, it’s funny that some random guests on the internet actually cared this much about a couple of employees. When he can’t avoid it anymore, he tries to look over at her with the most casual expression he’s ever made in his life. “What do you think?”

She bites her lip, like she’s trying to hide a smile. “Juke’s too generic. Should be Jukebox.”

She doesn’t look upset or spooked, and she’s still leaning against his arm, and he doesn’t think she’d be doing any of that if the premise of the thread made her uncomfortable.

So he smiles and switches his phone to camera mode. “Then let’s give our Muggle fans some more Quality Content™.”

Later, when he’s on his ten, he takes out his phone, just intending to look at their selfie one more time. But what’s greeting him is a Twitter notification: @thesingingjulieclaw liked your Tweet.

He’s still confused, but he has trouble keeping the smile off his face after that.

* * *

The smile only gets bigger when they’re closing. Once the guests have all left the Three Brooms for the night, Luke is starting to set up his speakers when Julie holds up her phone.

“Can I DJ tonight? There’s a song stuck in my head that I want to listen to.”

“Yeah, of course.”

She grins at him as the song starts playing over the speakers. His mouth drops open. “How did you get that?”

“Alex,” she says simply. She goes back to her broom, sweeping in time to “Now or Never.”

So, yeah. Maybe he’s not totally convinced that she hates the idea of dating him.  


#LoveAtHogsmeade Group Chat:  
  
Alex:   
Okay, so I told Flynn that Luke doesn’t know how Julie feels about him  
And her reply was  
Hold on, let me forward it  
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA  
  
Luke:  
what does that mean?????   
  
Alex:   
You said you didn’t want to play telephone, so I’m not telling you anything else she said  
But assume I’m not sharing that to be a dick  
  
Reggie:   
yessss we’re back on this  
ok, i found a new pick-up line, but it needs to be set up  
luke, do u think u can get her to say “my vagina is a horcrux”  
  
Alex:   
Let me stop you right there  
  


#### OFF THE CLOCK

Luke’s been avoiding bringing his parents to the park because he _knows_ his mom is going to spend the whole time making little comments about what a nice place it is to work. That she’ll want to meet his leads and managers, and that she’ll make pointed comments about how Luke would probably be great in a management role (even though he objectively wouldn’t.) He doesn’t want her to see the place and start picturing his whole life here. He enjoys the job, way more than he thought he was going to, but he doesn’t want to be here forever.

But when he’s over for dinner, his mother levels him with an aggressive gaze and asks, “When do we get to meet this Julia I’ve been hearing about at book club?”

“Julie,” he corrects on impulse. Which means he can’t pretend that he doesn’t know who she’s talking about, and he suspects from her expression that she did that on purpose. “Why would you get to meet her?”

“It sounds like you’re dating.”

“We’re not.” He’s very confused about what they _are_ doing. The night of the house party, he’d simultaneously had high hopes and no hopes. Equally convinced that Julie would ignore him all night, and that she would start to make out with him the second she arrived. Instead, it ended up being a confusing middle ground where they spent the whole night by each other’s sides, but nothing progressed beyond flirting and playful looks. Now he knows what she looks like outside of work, standing in his living room, across the mic from him. He wants so badly for that to be his daily reality. But he’s been so so obvious. If she were interested, surely she would have made a move by now, or reciprocated one of his moves.

He’s really confused. And really terrified of how much he likes this girl.

His mother gives him that knowing look, like when he was in school and he tried to pretend he’d already done his homework. “But you like her.”

“She’s cool to work with, yeah.”

“You like-like her.”

“Mom, I’m 22. I don’t like-like people.”

“You like-like Julie.”

He wants very much to stick his tongue out at her, but he feels like that undercuts the “I am an adult and I am too mature for this conversation” vibe he’s trying to project.

“Look, if I start dating someone, I promise I’ll introduce you.”

“Good, I look forward to meeting Julie.”

“MOM.”

His dad sets a salad in the middle of the table and sits next to his wife.

“Emily, give him a break.”

“THANK YOU.”

There’s a long silence as they all load salad onto their plates. Then his dad asks casually, “You requested the day off for Mom’s birthday, right?”

He eyes them. “Yeah, course. What do you wanna do?”

“I want to go to the park,” his mother says, unapologetic. “Do you think Julie’s working that day?”

The annoying thing is that he immediately knows she will be, because she and Luke have ended up on the same week schedule, with Monday and Tuesday serving as their “Saturdays and Sundays.” His mom’s birthday is a Thursday. Julie’s working.

“Probably” is all he’s willing to admit aloud. “But she might be in the Three Brooms”—she will be. He’s seen her schedule—“and we don’t wanna go in there during the lunch rush.”

“It’s my birthday, and I want to go to the Three Broomsticks during the lunch rush.”

“MOM.”

“Luke,” his father insists, mock sternly. “Are you going to deny your mother her birthday wish?”

He groans loudly. “Please don’t embarrass me.”

His mother raises her hands innocently. “I’m just going to introduce myself. I won’t say anything else. I promise.”

On the one hand, he’s sure his parents _will_ embarrass him in front of her somehow, especially if they make it seem like they’re too interested in meeting her. But on the other hand, he really really wants these three people to meet. He wants her to come to their weekly family dinners and tease him too. He wants to bring her on their yearly family trips to Big Sur. He wants this girl in his life, on the clock and off the clock, and he has no idea how to handle the intensity of that feeling.  


#LoveAtHogsmeade Group Chat:  
  
Alex:   
Julie is an angel  
  
Luke:  
you enjoy being on register?  
  
Alex:   
Oh no, that was absolutely horrifying and I never want to do it again  
Well, maybe  
Hmm, no  
But it was worth it  
  
Reggie:   
he and willie are going on a smoothie date tomorrow  
  
Luke:  
!!!  
how’d you do that so quickly?  
  
Reggie:   
probably:  
“can i have ur number”  
“do u wanna go out some time”  
  
Alex:   
^  
  
Luke:  
showoff  
but for real, i’m super happy for you, that’s awesome  
  
Alex:   
Full disclosure—that was all Willie  
He’s great and perfect and has self-confidence (which I don’t personally understand, but can respect in other people)  
Also, one of the first things he asked me was how long you and Julie have been dating  
Just saying  
  
Luke:  
i’m still not convinced julie likes me  
like, i’m being super obvious. i really feel like she would have said something by now if she was interested  
  
Reggie:   
maybe she thinks the same thing about u?  
  
Alex:   
^  
Also, Willie had a pick-up line suggestion for you  
Which I don’t approve of, but I promised I would pass it on  
“So I hear you’re Head Girl of your house...”  
  
Luke:  
…  
  
Reggie:   
i don’t get it  
oh  
wait  
i get it  
oh no  
that’s too far even for me  
  


#### 11.00-18.36 | BUTTERBEER 1

Luke is on the Three Brooms side of Butterbeer 1 and Julie’s on greeter which… on the one hand, is probably the best-case scenario for a shift where she’s at the Three Brooms and he’s on carts, but on the other hand, it’s kind of torture because he can see her but they can’t really talk unless they shout because she’s about a hundred feet away.

Alex, who’s pouring for him, is very entertained by his predicament, and keeps kicking his foot to draw his attention back to the guests in front of him. But it's hard to focus on the guests. Julie’s doing what she usually does on greeter when no guests are talking to her: dancing her hands along to the background music. Her constant delight at Hogsmeade, even after all these weeks of working here, makes his heart feel impossibly soft. When there’s no line of guests in front of him, he makes eye contact with her and starts dancing his hands too. She beams, and he’s glad that Alex is standing behind him and can’t see the probably embarrassing smile on his own face.

Someone clears their voice loudly, and as he looks at the older woman who’s appeared in front of him, he realizes that, well, the guests _can_ see his face.

“Is that your girlfriend?” she asks kindly.

His mouth drops open and Alex begins laughing. He drapes an arm around Luke’s shoulder. “That is an excellent question.”

Luke looks over to Julie, as if she’s going to be able to give him the answer, and she sends him a breathtaking smile and for a moment, he starts to think the answer is “not yet” instead of “no.”  


#LoveAtHogsmeade Group Chat:  
  
Alex:   
Reg, we had the most amazing guest today. She was doing The Good Work  
Also being very heteronormative  
But also perceptive  
  
Reggie:   
i don’t get it, what happened  
  
Alex:   
Just another guest who understands Luke and Julie’s relationship better than they do  
We have no choice but to stan  
  


#### 11.00-22.36 | THREE BROOMS [HOLIDAY PAY]

It amazes Luke that, all in a moment, after just one (dozen) kisses in front of a castle, the Fourth of July shift goes from being his least favorite shift of all time to his absolute favorite.

By the time he and Julie get back to wardrobe, the radio is off, emphasizing how late it is. Luke changes quickly and as he waits in the lounge for Julie, he can hear her singing “Let’s Get Together.” He smiles to himself: she sounds as giddy as he feels, and his heart beats faster at the idea that she probably likes him as much as he likes her. He starts to sing along, and he hears her giggle into the song in response. 

As her part of the song gets louder, he realizes that she's starting to leave the women’s changing room. He pops to his feet as she steps through the doorway. He can’t help but grin at her, standing there in ripped jeans and a crop top, her curls down around her shoulders. Regular, breathtaking, non-witch Julie.

“Hey.” Something about the silence makes him feel like he should be whispering, so he does.

“Hey,” she whispers back.

He feels weirdly nervous, as if she’ll have changed her mind now that they’re out of uniform. But as she tucks a curl behind her ear, he realizes that she’s also nervous. Which somehow makes him not at all nervous.

He crosses over to her, drops his dirty uniform on the ground, cradles her face, and captures her mouth eagerly. She kisses back instantly, wrapping her arms around his neck and drawing him closer, like she feels more comfortable pushing the boundaries between kissing and making out on company property now that she’s no longer in uniform.

He doesn’t know how long they lose themselves in the kiss, but the motion sensor lights go off in the empty changing room behind them, casting them in partial darkness.

“We should, uh, probably go,” he points out.

“Yeah,” she agrees.

But neither of them moves. He’s not really ready to separate from her just yet, and he gets the feeling that she isn’t either.

She was already brave tonight. Maybe it’s his turn.

He rests his forehead against hers. “Do you wanna come back to my place? Not to—Just to crash.”

“You wanna cuddle?”

“Probably the number one thing you should know about me in a relationship: I really love cuddling.” She beams, and he grins back, encouraged enough to continue outlining his plan. “We’re both in at 11 tomorrow, right? So we can drive in together. And I live closer to the park than you do, so less driving tonight—”

She kisses him quickly, cutting him off. “You don’t need to convince me. I’m convinced.” She slips her hand into his and tugs him toward the laundry chute. “And Monday is our Saturday, right? Maybe we can spend the day together? Go on an actual date. Possibly somewhere we don’t even work.”

A whole day with Julie outside work sounds like heaven. “So Disneyland?”

“You do know that there are many places in the world that aren’t theme parks?” she teases him as they chuck their uniforms down the chute.

“Nah, you’ll have to prove it to me. Take me to all these places that aren’t theme parks.”

“That’s going to take a while,” she laughs as she pulls him toward the escalator. “Probably won’t be able to get to them all on one date.”

“Damn. Guess we’re going to have to go on a lot of dates then.” He tucks her in close to him, sharing a single step on the escalator.

“I’m game if you are.”

“I’ve been game for three months.” As she grins, he kisses her again, and the escalator tugs them out of the park.  


Nope of July Group Chat:  
  
Luke:  
so jules and i may have made out   
  
Reggie:   
!!!  
  
Alex:   
!!!!!!!!  
  
Reggie:   
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Alex:   
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Reggie:   
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Luke:  
and she’s coming back to our place tonight  
  
Alex:   
That went from 0 to 60 fast  
  
Luke:  
TO SLEEP  
she lives out in eagle rock, she just wants to crash asap   
  
Alex:   
I mean, Eagle Rock’s not that far away but I’m not here to fact check  
  
Luke:  
can you guys be cool when she comes in?  
  
Reggie:   
alex actually isn’t home  
  
Alex:   
At Willie’s, making sure he’s recovering okay  
  
Luke:  
at 11pm?  
  
Alex:   
I didn’t fact check your bullshit, how dare you try to fact check mine  
  
Reggie:   
i can be calm  
…  
i can’t, i’ll stay in my room  
  
Alex:   
I mean, can Luke be calm?  
  
Luke:  
nah  
not even a little  
  


**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr as [pearlcaddy](https://pearlcaddy.tumblr.com)!
> 
> Songs/musical references:  
> • "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" by Rodgers and Hammerstein  
> • "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations  
> • "Don't Kill My Vibe" by Sigrid  
> • "Born for This" by The Score  
> • Augustines (e.g. "When Things Fall Apart," "Cruel City")  
> • "Let's Get Together" by Hayley Mills


End file.
